Slipping Away
by HecateA
Summary: You can't love a tree, but you can love memories. For as long as they last. Oneshot. Writen for Percy Jackson Ship Week 4.


**Hi! This is another story writen for the PERCY JACKSON SHIP WEEK! I saw it on Burdge-bug's tumblr, and basically it's one ship being glorified for every week until The Mark of Athena comes out. So I thought it'd be cool to write a story for each week. The order goes as such: **

august 6 august 13: Grover and Juniper. (Check)

august 13 august 20: Clarisse and Chris. (Check)

august 20 august 27: Silena and Charles. (Check)

september 3 september 10: Thalia and Luke.

september 10 september 17: Hazel and Frank.

september 17 september 24: Piper and Jason / Reyna and Jason (optional)

september 24 october 1: Percy and Annabeth.

**So this is my first Luke/Thalia story (:D) and since I know their unhappy ending, this is an unhappy oneshot. Well, I'll let you figure that out for yourself :) Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Me no own.**

* * *

**Percy Jackson Ship Weeks #4 Thalia and Luke**

* * *

**Slipping Away**

* * *

When he woke up, Annabeth was sitting on the end of his bunk looking at him like she'd been expecting him to wake up. He swore that in ten years they'd find out that all the times that Luke or Thals had woken up for no reason was because of some power to perk up the brain that kid had.

For a second nothing in his mind made any sense whatsoever. Then he remembered. Camp. Thalia. Talking to Chiron. Arguing with the Centaur about not shipping Annabeth off to sleep alone during her first night. Falling asleep a long time after she did. Thalia…

"Did everything from last night really just happen?" Annabeth asked him.

Luke thought for a second. He wouldn't have let Thalia go sleep in some cabin on her own if everything from last night hadn't happened and she wasn't a tree now.

He pulled Annabeth towards him, as much for her sake as for his.

"Yeah kiddo, everything did." He said holding her close.

* * *

His senior counsellor, Brady, had told Luke that it was now free time and he could do what he liked.

So he hiked up Half-Blood hill, a bunch of kids looking at him weird. Luke didn't care. These were strangers. They didn't know… her. They knew a tree. Trees weren't great company, and Thalia had been more than great to start with.

He paused once he reached the first prickly branch and reached out his hand. The needles pricked his fingers. He breathed in the scent of evergreen. He walked up to the trunk and ran his hand up and down the rough bark that cut on his hand. His fingers got stuck on sap and he brought it to his eyes.

"Oh my God," he said panicked. He stumbled backwards but tripped on a root.

"Oh my God," Luke said. Tears prickled his eyes as reality hit him hard. "Thalia… You're… You're a tree… It's not…"

"Luke," someone said putting hands on his shoulders. Luke whipped them away but they came back.

"I hadn't realised, it hadn't clicked, it's really her, she's really a…"

"Luke, get up bro." The person said again. It was Brady.

"She's not even dead properly they had to…" Tears prickled his eyes.

"Luke, come on." He was slowly dragging Luke away.

"It's Thalia, she knows me!"

"Luke, that blonde kid's watching you," Brady said. Luke looked over his shoulder, feeling pale and faint and horrible, and saw Annabeth watching, her grey eyes worried and sad and scared.

Luke stumbled to his feet, Brady keeping an arm around him. He felt weak, like those times when they didn't eat for days. But she wasn't there feeling weak and starved with him and he'd eaten this morning and so had Annabeth and trees didn't eat.

"That's it," he said. "Come on, let's go get some cocoa. That'll make you feel better. Wanna bring your shadow?"

"Shadow?" Luke mumbled. "Oh, Annabeth. No… I want… I don't want her to see…"

"Yeah, okay." Brady said. "Come on."

* * *

He followed Annabeth who was skipping up Half-Blood hill. She really liked it at Camp. She missed Thalia and she shadowed Luke, of course (earning herself a nickname in Cabin 11), but she was happy. She was surrounded by kids who knew what she was talking about when she talked about science, books aplenty, paper to draw on, models to build, people to learn from and, as she pointed out, 'there are spiders everywhere in forests, but never in my Cabin'.

She stopped when she got to the top of the tree.

"It's weird how there's never any snow," Annabeth said.

"There's a weather barrier," Luke explained half mindedly.

"I know. But it's weird. I think Thalia's tree would look really pretty with snow on it." Annabeth said.

"I guess," Luke said.

"How old would Thalia be?" Annabeth asked. "If she weren't a tree and all that?"

"Fourteen," Luke said.

"Fourteen," Annabeth echoed. "That's twice my age."

"Sure is," Luke said.

Annabeth put her flower down.

"Happy birthday," she whispered shyly.

"Hey, I got something for us." Luke said.

Annabeth looked at him. "Did you steal it?"

"Of course I stole it," he said. He produced a pack of these thick cookies with cream in the middle that Thalia _loved _even if she'd never admit it.

Annabeth smiled when she saw them. Thalia had rubbed off. Or maybe Annabeth was impressible. Or maybe she was seven year olds and thus perma-craving sugar.

They sat down, the branches of Thalia's trees like a parasol and they ate. Annabeth had kept up her habit of munching on food tiny bites at a time. You'd think it was a mouse eating a ration of cheese in the middle of winter; not a seven year old given sugar.

Luke was waiting for her to finish, thinking about Thalia of course, and she stopped.

"It's too bad that Thalia can't have one of these." She said.

"It is." Luke said.

"Do you think that if we offer it to the tree she'd get it? Like gods?"

"No," Luke said. "She's not a god or a goddess. She's Thalia."

"What about if we planted it, would her roots suck it up?" Annabeth asked.

"I think that's just with water." Luke said.

"But Thalia's not _just _a tree." Annabeth pointed out.

"Okay Annabeth, you can try." Luke said, figuring that even if the thing did attract monsters 1) Thalia's tree offered the best protection Camp had gotten in years and 2) all these demigods were trained to fight monsters.

Annabeth dug in the ground, her curls falling in her face.

"Did you brush your hair?" Luke asked, noticing knots.

"Yeah. Eve made me." Annabeth said.

"Really?" Luke asked skeptic.

Annabeth nodded furiously. "Yeah, my hair's brushed, stop nagging!" She said.

Luke realised for the first time in a long time he wasn't the one taking care of Annabeth.

* * *

Winter zoomed by, Christmas and New Year's and Valentine's Day and all that. All were spent with his cabin, pulling pranks. The snow melted outside the borders, which made Luke feel like he was inside a snow globe, watching the real world outside.

Luke did feel like the real world was outside. Things happened inside camp that shouldn't happen. And he wasn't talking about being on a team that lost Capture-the-Flag, having twenty siblings (really, Dad? He wasn't any more likable in Luke's head than he had before, although he was thankful that he wasn't a Maple or an Oak), being taught archery by a centaur or getting scolded for vandalism by the god of wine.

He meant what was happening inside his mind.

Sometimes in his mind when someone said 'Thalia', it was the smell of pine and the prickly feeling of green needles on his fingertips that came to mind. Not the face of a blue eyed girl with hawk features and spiky black hair. And that was a scary thing to Luke. Because his Thalia was a girl not a tree. His Thalia was bright and present not standing in the distance. His Thalia was active and fast on her feet and impulsive, not still and planted in the ground. His Thalia breathed. She wasn't a half dead spirit inside a tree.

He rested his head against the trunk, exhausted by today's training.

"My mind's doing crazy things, but it'd just be insane if I forgot _that." _Luke said. "Don't let me forget, Thals."

* * *

Maybe Zeus had actually killed her more by locking her in a trunk, Luke thought as he looked around.

People were pouring from their cabins, rushing to meet so and so who'd just gotten into this cabin or that one, helping others carry suitcases or trunks, occasionally helping a limping backpacker to the Big House's infirmary.

Annabeth's big eyes were studying this slightly ordered but still considerably big mess. Luke was rigging bunk beds, so he didn't see much of that.

People stopped by Thalia's tree, sheltered their eyes and looked up to the top, top branch. They whispered to each other and pointed. They wondered who Annabeth was, told their friends that "Stupid, look at her eyes, she's obviously a child of Athena", and wondered how young she was. They exchanged rumours and the real story about the new tree.

And it wasn't like Thalia could say "Take a picture, it'll last longer. Do you seriously _think _that this tree is a security system installed by the government? No, back off and move on."

And for some reason Luke couldn't manage it either.

But he never did explain the _real_ origins of Thalia's tree to anyone he gave a tour to, either.

* * *

It'd been a whole year.

Wow.

A whole year of being fed and sheltered… A whole year where the most dangerous thing he'd done had been Capture-the-Flag and that giant Cabin-5-wide raid of pants. A year of stability, a year of brothers and sisters and letting Annabeth go.

A year without Thalia.

He and Annabeth gathered under the tree.

"September 7th is going to be a sad day forever," Annabeth said.

"You got that right, kiddo." Luke said.

"I miss her," Annabeth said. "But she wouldn't want me to miss her, so I try not to."

"Nah," Luke told her. "Thalia would want you to be true to yourself. But… yeah, she'd still want you to be happy at camp."

"And you?" Annabeth asked him after a while. "Do you miss her?"

Eight years old or not, Luke was so sure that she was asking this in the same way a daughter of Aphrodite would ask him. She was so perceptive and grown-up sometimes. But she still had that innocence to her. She was a kid; you wanted to take care of her and protect her and watch your language around her.

"Yeah kiddo," Luke said. "I really miss her."

* * *

Luke lied in bed and suddenly decided that trying to sleep was no good. He climbed out the window his bed was lined up with. He grabbed the gutter and put his feet on the windowsill. Extreme training and proper nutrition had given him the strength to climb onto the roof, and scramble up the shingles, kicking a few down (whatever, the cabin was falling apart anyways) and he sat down on the roof.

He looked up at the stars. During one of her good days, his mother had told him that when his father's grandparents had made the sky to go with the earth, they'd run out of material and had had to leave little holes.

He shook that out of his head. She wasn't his problem. Not anymore. His father could deal with that since he was apparently so important.

Thalia had told him more stories about the stars. Guess she knew a lot about them as daughter of the sky lord. She told him about hunters and scorpions and bears and Pegasi. It'd been before they'd run into Annabeth, they were spending the night in Minnesota on the banks of Lake Superior. Wait, was it Lake Michigan?

Luke tripped during that walk in memory lane. He knew that there'd been a safe house there… He knew that he'd kissed Thalia for the first time back at that same safe house only later, earlier the night Grover had shown… Grover had shown when they were on Lake Michigan. There you go, that was right.

He asked Grover the next day.

It turned out that the only safe house they'd had around the Great Lakes had been in Ohio, bordering Lake Erie.

Right.

* * *

Luke was transporting water guns from his cabin to… that was top secret information… Anyways, he noticed Annabeth standing on Half-Blood hill with her hair tied back in a fish tail.

He looked around. Most campers were gone because it was school time and… Styx.

He dropped everything in Brady's arms and ran back up the hill.

"Hey," Luke said panting.

Annabeth turned around to look at him. She looked sad. That explained the face she'd made him at breakfast.

"Three years," Annabeth said sadly.

"Yeah," Luke said his stomach sinking. "Three years…" He said.

What day was it? September… 6th? No, 7th.

* * *

He saw Thalia's tree in the distance. No wait… that wasn't Thalia's tree! That was Thalia!

She was standing there, her hair long black like it was before she'd had to chop it once a Cyclops caught it. Her hair pulled up in a high and loose ponytail. She was wearing black jeans torn at the knee by monsters and not style (difference?), black combat boots, his spare hoody, brown and loose, and she'd covered it with her band buttons thus making it her own. Her spear was strapped over her shoulder, her shield was on her arm. Her eyes lined with eyeliner that made her blue eyes pop even more- those gorgeous eyes, that gorgeous girl…

"Thalia," Luke said, his voice sounding dry and croaky. He got up, he didn't know why he'd been on all four, and staggered towards her. She held out the arm to which Aegis was strapped to him. He didn't stumble backwards under the glare of the gorgon, he went forwards. Medusa wasn't scaring him off. She was welcoming him. And Thalia was welcoming him too. Into her arms…

Luke tripped again but he got up instantly because it hadn't hurt since he didn't feel anything. He just had to get to her.

Luke could nearly touch her. The hill was pulling him down towards the ground.

His head was fuzzy. Why has his head fuzzy? And his eyesight too. Maybe the world had gone fuzzy.

Thalia was going fuzzy.

"Thalia," he breathed. "Thalia don't go," he said, his voice raspy.

Suddenly his back was impaled by something sharp and Luke screamed. Thalia disappeared from his eyesight and he fell to the ground, sprawl-eagled, in pain, shouting. His face had exploded in pain again and Thalia had disappeared…

More people were showing but they weren't Thalia.

Someone grabbed his arm but wasn't Thalia while someone else who wasn't Thalia either raced behind him, screaming a battle cry and calling for backup because something was breathing fire.

He was dragged into camp. He looked for Thalia. He didn't see her. There was just a tree.

"Luke, man, are you okay? Speak up! Have you been like this all the way since San Francisco?" Someone asked him. He got smacked on both cheeks. "Luke, it's Beckendorf, are you okay?"

"Thalia," he panted. "Thalia."

"Luke!" Someone yelled. Another not-Thalia, but this one was a girl so it was closer. She was too young to be Thalia.

His head spun. Words were really random and didn't have to do with anything. Things like Quest- that will scar- Annabeth calm down- killed the hound following him- why is he calling out the tree's name- poison- dehydrated- hallucination- infirmary- quick- call Chiron.

And then Luke passed out.

He woke up and his memory was so fresh, his heart broke when they told him he'd been hallucinating.

* * *

"I saw her," Luke said. He was sitting up in bed, his arm in a sling, his face still on fire, Annabeth holding down a cool compress onto his ankle. She was ten years old only.

"I know," Annabeth said sadly, holding a bowl of ambrosia pudding.

"And her hair was long again, like when I met her. Before she had to chop it off when a monster grabbed it." Luke said.

Annabeth looked at him with horrified eyes.

"Luke," she said. "I'm the one who had to chop my hair."

"You?" Luke said. "Nah, that must've been another time."

"No, Luke, it was me." Annabeth said. She raised her hair and turned her head to show him that behind, her hair wasn't growing right. She turned back to him. "Because we got stuck with a bunch of Cyclops, right? Thalia's hair was short because her mother hated brushing it for her and had it cut when she was little."

Luke wanted to pass out again and never wake up because his stomach felt so hollow and hard.

"Here," Annabeth said taking a spoonful of ambrosia out of the bowl and walking towards him. "One more won't hurt."

* * *

He hadn't seen Annabeth for the whole day. Not breakfast, not lunch, not at activities…

So during dinner when she still didn't show, as the sky was getting dark, he went looking for her.

He found her after a while when Malcolm, the first brother that was less than two years older than her that she'd had so far, told her that she was in a cabin.

He found her sitting on her bunk, drawing on squared paper.

"Hey kiddo," he said. "Knock, knock."

Annabeth only looked over her shoulder. Her face was so sad.

"What's wrong, Annabeth?" Luke said trying to remember if word of someone dying had come through camp today.

"I'm having a bad day," she said.

"How come?" Luke asked.

"Five's a big number," she sighed.

What was she talking about?

"Six is bigger?" He offered as comfort.

She frowned and looked at him. "Six is next year." She said. "Why are _you _so happy?"

Suddenly all the pieces clicked in and Luke was horrified.

"I…" He backed out of the cabin. "Sorry Annabeth, I…" he choked, "I have to go."

Running through camp, the tears blurring his vision and running down his face, he sprinted up the hill and starred up at the tree, tall as ever. Green as always. Thalia as never.

"You said that you wouldn't let me forget!" He yelled up. He let out a sob and caught himself. "No you didn't. You never did. Because you're not a person, you're a tree. You're not Thalia, you're a pine. You're not her, you're it. And if you're not her then you're not the one I love and I should stop kidding myself!" He screamed.

Luke broke down and fell to his knees.

"But I _want _to love you." He said into his hands, muffled by his sobs. "But I want to love you."

He hurt so bad that he couldn't describe it. He wouldn't try.

The voice in his head was raspy, like knives, and sounded far, far away.

_See what the gods do to the ones you love? See the faults in the faultless? See how they let her slip away? See how they let everything slip away? How flawed their world is? That's it Luke Castellan. That's it._


End file.
